


To Dust or to Gold

by Joyous32



Series: Centuries [1]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 10:13:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4956361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joyous32/pseuds/Joyous32
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the insurrection of 1832, some have woken up and found it impossible to die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Dust or to Gold

**Author's Note:**

> Buried alive, descriptive wounds, suffocation

_"And just one mistake_

_Is all it will take_

_We’ll go down in history_

_Remember me for centuries"_

_-"Centuries" by Fall Out Boy_

**1832, France**

Enjolras woke up and cried out. He tried to sit up, but hit his head against something. In the dark, he attempted to crawl out from under whatever there was above him, but he hit something else. Enjolras grunted, feeling as if his side had burst open. He placed his hand on his chest and it came away wet. Enjolras cried out again as he realized that he was completely covered in his own blood. He could feel himself grow faint as pain riveted through his body.

He woke up again and groaned in frustration. Why wouldn’t he die? He was convinced at this point that he was blind. Another voice called out. “Hello?” Enjolras responded.

“Enjolras!” It was Courfeyrac. “My stomach hurts.” He called and Enjolras groaned.

“I’m covered in blood.” Enjolras responded.

“Enjolras?” Combeferre called.

“Combeferre!” Courfeyrac shouted back and burst into sobs.

“Where are you guys?” Combeferre asked.

“I don’t know.” Enjolras responded.

“There are bodies all around me. I think they’re dead.” Courfeyrac whimpered and Enjolras heard Combeferre gasp. Enjolras tried to blink into sight, but there was nothing. He felt out and did find a face under his hand. Gasping, he pulled away.

“I don’t feel good.” Enjolras moaned.

“Light headed?” Another voice called.

“Joly? Is that you?” Combeferre shouted back and they heard a relieved chuckle.

“Yeah.”

“We’re underground.” Another voice whispered and there was more sobbing.

“Who else is there?” Enjolras demanded.

“Eponine. And Gavroche.” The whimpering voice announced.

“Feuilly.” A scratchy voice exclaimed.

“Joly, Combeferre, Courfeyrac and Enjolras.” Enjolras finished.

“We’ve been buried.” Feuilly announced.

“Yes.”

“I should be dead.” Enjolras commented and the crying grew louder followed by Combeferre’s soothing shhing.

“Okay, we need to focus on how to get out. We’re losing oxygen, which means we can’t—” He didn’t finish. They shouldn’t be able to breathe right now. They should all be dead. The lack of air alone should have killed them all by now. The infection and bullets should have ended them even sooner. Groaning, Enjolras kicked up at the wood above him. They were in a coffin. A coffin for rebels who were buried together dishonorably.

“The dirt should still be loose enough if we were buried recently.” Feuilly claimed. Enjolras sighed, breathing in what seemed to be pure carbon dioxide and then kicked up again. As dirt came tumbling in on him, he cried out.

“This way!” Enjolras yelled and began scrambling out of the dirt as it piled into the coffin. Hours later, they had all emerged from the coffin covered in dirt and blood.

“The pain’s not going to kill us.” Combeferre announced when they tried to nurse their wounds. “We need to get out of sight.” He looked around. They appeared to be in an unmarked graveyard.

“Does anyone recognize where we are?” Enjolras called.

“I do.” Eponine announced.

“Could you take us somewhere safe?” Feuilly asked and Eponine looked to him, but slowly nodded. Together, they all headed off, attempting to ignore the pain that seared through them. When they arrived at an empty house that Enjolras slowly recognized as his own, Combeferre and Joly began nursing everyone’s wounds, starting with Eponine and Gavroche’s since they were the youngest. By morning, they had all been nursed and were sitting around staring at one another in attempts to sleep. Nobody could sleep.

When the sun rose, Feuilly headed out to see what had happened. “We are all announced dead. Though, Marius is in here claiming to be getting married in a few weeks.” Feuilly explained as he leafed through a newspaper.

“When did he wake up?” Eponine asked. 

“Did anyone see him die?” Joly questioned and they all were silent.

“Good for him.” Feuilly muttered.

“So, what about Jehan and Bahorel…or Grantaire?” Courfeyrac asked. “Are they all dead?”

“And Bossuet.”

“We saw Jehan and Bahorel die and they never woke back up.”

“I saw Bossuet die.” Combeferre announced.

“And I saw Grantaire.” Enjolras finished.

“So what? I saw Joly die.” Courfeyrac added. “Maybe they’re okay too.”

“Courfeyrac, there were other people in that coffin. There were dead people in there that must have died during the revolution.”

“Riot.” Combeferre corrected and Enjolras turned to frown at him. “We failed, Enjolras. It was a riot.”

“We were organized.” Enjolras whispered back as tears filled his eyes.

“You died.” Combeferre raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

“Apparently not.” Enjolras snapped back.

“Who cares? What if there are more of us alive?” Feuilly barked.

“We all woke up at the same time. Roughly.” Joly pointed out.

“I woke up but then fell unconscious again.” Enjolras offered and they sighed simultaneously.

“I want to check.” Courfeyrac decided and Combeferre looked to him.

“We can’t go dig up those who died alongside us. It’s disrespectful.”

“Well, it’s also disrespectful to let people die when we could save them.” Enjolras responded and they all looked at him questioningly. He bowed his head in acknowledgment of his prior murderous actions. “They can’t die without a point.”

“We should’ve died several times over.” Combeferre pointed out.

“We were shot, we bled out, we were probably heavily infected, and suffocated by wood and then dirt.” Joly listed.

“Yes. Thank you.” Combeferre commented, rubbing the bandage over his stomach. “My point is that they can survive as well if we did. We can’t go dig up rebels. Especially when we should be dead. If they are alive, they’ll find us.”

“We should find Marius.” Eponine expressed and they thought this over.

“Who would he be least surprised to see alive if he hadn’t also dug himself out of his grave?” Feuilly asked.

“Alive and visiting him? Me.” Courfeyrac decided and they all agreed.

In the end, it was discovered that Marius had never died nor been buried, though he was pleasantly surprised to see that Courfeyrac had lived as well. They decided amongst themselves that they would not announce that the rest of them were living, though several people-namely Eponine- did not seem happy to agree. Still, they stayed together, moving away to America, where they would spend the rest of their lives, newly started. 


End file.
